232 CEKAMIC WAKE. 



use of pure white clay, as the Chinese and Japanese had done 

 from time immemorial. The Babylonians, as already stated, 

 had arrived at a sort of spurious result, by varnishing a red- 

 clay surface white by means of fused oxide of tin. Whether 

 the traditions of that art completely died out, or the con- 

 trary, we have now no means of knowing. At any rate, the 

 world received no farther benefit from the tin-glaze process 

 until about the fourteenth century, when the Balearic Sara- 

 cens began to manufacture a sort of pottery, of which this 

 white tin-glaze upon a coloured ground was the specialty. 

 The manufacture was chiefly prosecuted in Majorca : whence 

 the distinctive term c Majolica ' given to this sort of fictile 

 ware, and which it has ever since retained. 



No sooner had Majolica ware sprung into being, for this 

 the second time, than the Spanish Saracens began to lavish 

 upon it their utmost powers of ornamentation. Moreover, 

 they applied it to purposes other than mere vessels of use or 

 luxury. They made slabs and tiles of it; and with these 

 adorned the interior of their buildings. The Alhambra was 

 profusely ornamented with these Majolica slabs and tiles; 

 and, because of the prevalent blue colour, the Spaniards call 

 them 'Azulecos.' 



Very soon after the discovery of Majolica, the Italian 

 school of painting rose into eminence ; and painters of the 

 highest Italian renown deigned to work upon the ornamenta- 

 tion of Majolica. In point of fact, this variety of fictile ware 

 came so near the mark of satisfying people's aspirations for 

 elegant pottery, that it held its own contemporaneously with 

 the manufacture of a white material throughout. 



Reference has already been made to Bernard Palissy. 

 Prior to about 1560 the secret of the tin-glaze had not been 

 discovered in France, though Catherine de' Medicis had esta- 

 blished a Majolica factory, conducted by Italian artists. Pa- 

 lissy set himself the problem of effecting the discovery, which 

 he accomplished, at length, after years of assiduous experi- 



